In short: DarkFighter is Hikvision's low-light camera sensor technology - a wide-aperture lens and sensitive sensor pairing that produces usable colour footage in near-darkness before switching to infrared once light drops further. It is not the same as ColorVu, which uses white light instead. We stock Hikvision DarkFighter fixed cameras and DarkFighterX PTZ speed domes.
DarkFighter is Hikvision's low-light sensor technology. On our own DarkFighter models this typically means an F1.2-F1.4 lens and a sensor sensitive enough to produce a usable colour image at around 0.008 lux - roughly moonlight - before the camera switches to infrared, which then extends coverage into full darkness (commonly out to 30m on our fixed DarkFighter models). It is a sensor and optics technology rather than a single product line, so you will see it combined with other Hikvision features on the same camera - vandal-resistant IK10 domes, motorised vari-focal lenses, and AcuSense AI detection among them.
DarkFighter vs DarkFighterX
DarkFighter is used across Hikvision's fixed dome, bullet and turret cameras. DarkFighterX is the same underlying low-light technology applied to Hikvision's PTZ speed dome range, which adds motorised pan/tilt and optical zoom (up to 25x on models we stock) on top of the low-light performance - suited to sites that need to cover a wide area and then zoom in on an incident.
DarkFighter vs ColorVu
These solve the same problem - a usable image after dark - in different ways. DarkFighter is a very sensitive sensor that still switches to infrared once light drops far enough, giving a discreet, monochrome night image. ColorVu uses built-in white light instead of infrared, keeping the image in full colour around the clock at the cost of the light being visible. See our ColorVu Explained guide for the full comparison.
